Saturday, January 22, 2011

Could this be the future?

"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband.  

"In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered.  Actually, Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and  Washington.  Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.

Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in.  It was more the thought of eating another TofuTurkey.  Even though it was the best type of VeggieMeat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already
included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey.   And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.  

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting.  The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the TofuTurkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold.  Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats-which were monitored and controlled by the electric company-be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatment.  He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. "The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled.  I'm sorry for your loss."

Ed couldn't make it either.  He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines-for everyone but government
officials.  The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in.  Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his
hemorrhoids.  Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the
terrorists." Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022.  That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine.  Almost.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact.   "A living Constitution is extremely flexible,"said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan.  " Europe has had laws like this one for years.  We should learn from their example," she added.  

Winston's thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone
at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether.  Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility.  It didn't help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being.  Winston paid the $5000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13.  The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to "spur economic growth."  This time they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.  

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement .  At least he had his memories.  He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential."
 
Quite a story, isn't it........we could laugh except these things don't REALLY seem so unimaginable anymore, do they.  Who would have thought that only five years ago?    I want to thank Pris for bringing this to our attention......   Think any of this COULD come true?

z

24 comments:

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Tantalus Shrugged

christian soldier said...

reminds of Orwell's 1984--and it is happening...slowly and surely...
Carol-CS

elmers brother said...

Speaking of civility Olberhman is out t MSNBC

Always On Watch said...

What a scenario! Makes me glad that I'm as old as I am so I wouldn't have to live very long under such conditions.

Chuck said...

Look at some of the changes just in the last couple of years. Go back further and look at the changes made in public schools. This isn't as far fetched as it seems.

Of course any minute now you will have your resident idiot come by and explain how this is just you being a right-wing nut, you just need to relax and drink the koolaid.

Brooke said...

Orwellian, indeed.

And if this administration thought they could get away with it, the country would look like that by the end of the day.

Linda said...

This sounds like it is happening right now. I'm with AOW...I'm getting old enough I won't be around to see all of this come true, but my kids and grandkids, and the following generations will, unless, we come to our senses! SOON!

Ducky's here said...

Sports civility? Someone should tell the Full Contact Fighting Federation. Moving closer to the Coliseum all the time.
No, that's something you won't be seeing anytime soon. It would be like a Red Sox/Spankees game without Chamberlain throwing at Youkalis.
Won't happen.

Thermostat at 68? Wimps, mine's at 60.

I wouldn't force anyone to eat Tofuturkey but it would be worthwhile if folks understand just how inefficient a source of protein meat is. Gonna come a time when we are going to have to deal with the issue so why not get started?

Larry Sheldon said...

There is an upside to being really old.

Especially since some of your children are all for it.

'Tis a bitter pill, that.

bob said...

Great post and story. Did you dream up all this stuff?

One thing we were taught in economics is that the government, or any individual cannot successfully forecast winners. The economy is so complex, with billions of individual decisions making up the total that no one can imitate it, let alone write computer programs to forecast economic outcomes.

I will add your site to my blogroll. Thanks.

Z said...

Larry, great comment...it's so disheartening to think anybody'd even consider any of this ridiculous stuff. And indoctrinated kids actually will. unreal.
Already the light bulbs they foisted on us are causing problems, etc etc....
No wonder he called the NEW WORLD BRAVE...we have to be BRAVE to consider this idiotic leftist turn of events.

bob, thanks for coming by. I wish I could take credit for this post (thanks, I really should mention it's NOT mind but I think something's at the end that it came from Pris...anyway?) but I do write or post a lot of things I hope you'll enjoy. Good to have you here.

Anonymous said...

Good satire does require a ring of truth and this story has enough to make one think. On the other hand, this can happen only if America allows it to happen. While there may be many who wouldn't mind an America of this type (progressives) and will try to make it a reality, most Americans oppose all this and made it clear in November.

MGM in Anderson

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Thermostat at 68? Wimps, mine's at 60.

And you look like Han Solo on the ice planet Hoth sitting in your living room every time someone opens the trailer door and you scream about not paying to heat the whole damned planet.

Anonymous said...

I received this in an email. I wish I knew who had written it. Heck, I wish I had.

Pretty glum huh? I have said the left won't be satisfied until we have only what we need. Fun and joy are not necessities for breathing in and out, and staving off obesity!

Ducky, you may have a point. Sometimes I wonder if the Colliseum would be filled to the brim today to watch a fight to the death. I pray not.

It's happened before hasn't it? After all those who call themselves Progressives, are really calling for regressive behavior.

Less energy usage, prohibitions of certain foods, less mobility, end of life rationing, etc. body searches and seizures of our property.
Really an end to the progress civilization has made.

Everything they are doing is to destroy freedom. And you call that progressive? But then your words don't measure up to the reality you think you really want.

Oh, the sports civility will be for those who fall in line, the Colliseum for those who refuse to. Just like the good old days centuries ago.

I'm with some of the others here and glad I'm the age I am. I'd be at peace if I didn't have children and a grandchild. But I do, and that's why I won't rest as long as I take a breath, and neither will millions of Americans who feel the same way.

Pris

Ticker said...

I wish I could take credit for this post (thanks, I really should mention it's NOT mind but I think something's at the end that it came from Pris...anyway


Z I posted this on Jan 11 but that's ok, it's good for another laugh, that is, if it were not so true.

RedWood said...

Can it happen? Only if we sit on our asses and let it happen. I think the TParty is the tip of the ice berg when it comes to politics. Most people were never concerned about politics at all before.

Now all that's changed...and people DO NOT WANT this change being shoved down our rears or throats. The TParty and all the "fly-over" people in the middle of America have sent a clear signal to the bastards in DC...all of them.

Dem and R alike. I see it in 2012 that it will become a major third party. The pols have been warned on where the line in the sand is...especially on government intrusion, islamic terrorists, muslims in general ( are not good for America as the French and all others are discovering ) illegal immigrant criminals, welfare and the loss of our cherished traditions. Only to be smothered by PC bullshit that tells us we must accept the destruction of our culture in order for a "more perfect, diverse, multi cultural" union".

The so called Union...is falling apart.

I also find this scenario as believable as the "Turner Diaries"....but in the latter....the pushing just went too far...and the people rose up.

I also see that you didn't include new laws that would allow punishment, imprisonment by islamic courts if we offended sharia laws!

Like I posted a few days ago....I'll hate my country for being so damned foolish, suicidal, ignorant of the consequences of limiting our freedoms....while permitting lawlessness on our borders, in our banks , corporations and other institutions....while allowing the destruction of our religion/ language / culture... over the acceptance of another.

Z said...

REdwood, I feel the same way...I've loved this country SO MUCH for so long and it's hard to see Americans doing what they're doing to it.....I don't feel the love quite so much, trust me.

Ticker, Pris sent it to me via email...sorry, didn't know you'd posted it!

60 degrees? That's not strong, that's a little stupid, in my opinion.

Layla said...

Tofu turkey? That's a sick one...ugh. Who knows what the future will bring but I sure hope it does not include Obama.

Just me. xo

RedWood said...

Ms. Z..."One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest."

Of course you and all enlightened people know...Is a quote from a Ken Kesey novel. One of the mans best IMHO.

And in essence... is one mans fight against a progressive, mandated conformity and the evilness of a state sponsored, medically endorsed and demanded rituals for providing "medical care". That one man who's ideas are a threat to the system...must be quashed.

To me, it is an apt and accurate description of the state of America today.

Whether or not one interprets the "east" being the ME...or the "west" being our culture or the "left coast".

Then of course the "east & west" means that both coasts of this great, wonderful yet doomed Republic...created by God fearing, respectful of God, men, our founders... has completely lost the intent and meaning of it's origination. We have floundered and are so close to becoming a once great society...so close to upheaval and the closing of a magnificent chapter in the history of the world.

Think not? Look at the EU...look at the ME...look at Israel losing it's direction and dedication to be free from extinction.
One would think that after a war that annihilated 6,000,000 Jews that that would be enough of a reason to resist the onslaught of the Arabs...after the...after the genocide of the Nazis? I guess not. I guess the Jews like their American counterparts....are willing to suffer another purge? This time by non Ayrian Arabs?

Yet, I digress...of course we're all aware of the signs of the coming Apocalypse.


If we step back and look at this in more general terms that apply to every Western country, I think the real lesson is that PC/liberal dogma has been utterly intolerant of even the very legitimate and well-intentioned discussions about race, ethnicity, culture, national identity, etc. By their deliberate conflation of someone who says “immigrants should assimilate into our culture, not the other way ’round” with a raving neo-Nazi, they have purged these valid concerns of the former from the realm of discourse. As time goes on and these concerns become more aggravating, it funnels people towards the more extreme end of the spectrum because they can find no voice in the mainstream.

"The liberals, with their Political Correctness dogma, have only succeeded in extinguishing the pilot light. As a result, the gas has been filling the room. Something will eventually ignite it..."

That the Constitution...the basis of our Republic has been so bastardized by the ilk now in power...to become an impediment...an impediment to "progressive / regressive" desires....

Well Ms. Z...this says to me that we have crossed that great divide into uncharted ground that will either be a renewal of our heritage...a renewal that we are a nation of laws and not men...or we will descend into the same chaos, poverty, destruction and meaningless nonsense as is Haiti.

Ticker said...

Z that's ok, it's good for another laugh, that is, if it were not so true.

I got it from an e-mail as well hahaha.

Mark said...

Orwellian indeed. It even uses 1984's main character's name, Winston.

If Obama and his minions get their way, this is our future.

MathewK said...

If only they try, it'll be most entertaining to watch as ordinary people rise up and horse-whip the soft-fascist left for it.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the castrated society. Once sterilized it can never regenerate. Death follows inevitably.

Oh well better to be dead than a dud.

Anonymous said...

Saw an article from The Telegraph in the UK that said domestic violence laws have been or are being rewritten to include raising your voice at a spouse, child, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever as an offense that can get you thrown out of your home by the authorities, and put in the jug. Verbal abuse is now considered as violent and as criminal as actual physical harm.

It sure is A Grave New World, ain't it?

Mortimer Canard